University thugs

Thursday 6th Octber, 2022

An ugly incident has been reported from the picturesque Peradeniya University, where, one may say with apologies to Bishop Heber, ‘every prospect pleases’ and only the student groups red in tooth and claw are vile. Some undergrads who campaign against ragging came under attack in a canteen at the Peradeniya Arts Faculty, recently. A student union with links to an ultra-radical political group has been blamed for the assault, which must be condemned unreservedly. The Arts Faculty teachers resorted to trade union action; they said they would not resume teaching unless all students’ safety and right to education were guaranteed.

When university teachers’ trade unions enlisted the support of the unruly student activists for their protest campaigns, we questioned their wisdom of doing so; we argued that the teachers would be beholden to the violent student groups, who had to be denied opportunities to legitimise their repressive policies.

It is heartening that the teachers of the Peradeniya Arts Faculty have grasped the nettle. They deserve praise for their decisive action. Their counterparts in other faculties of the Peradeniya University ought to emulate them in dealing with thugs in the garb of student activists responsible for inhuman ragging. The groves of academe ought to follow their example to make all seats of higher learning safe for students.

It is no use urging new university entrants to fight for their rights and confront their violent, organised tormentors, who hunt in packs, like hyenas. One cannot reason with violent mobs to act rationally. They threaten even their teachers with impunity. So, what needs to be done is to have the violent elements severely dealt with, according to the law. Dean of the Peradeniya Arts Faculty Prof. P. Ekanayake has said the university administrators and teachers cannot control the violent student activists, who have become a law unto themselves and even threatened him openly, and they have to be handled by the law enforcement authorities.

There is absolutely no need for any intimidating police presence inside universities, but in case of breaches of law, the law enforcement officers must be called in if the university authorities are not capable of handling such situations themselves. There is a school of thought that the police should not be allowed to get involved in what happens at universities. This is a misconception. In 1953, no less a person than Sir Ivor Jennings had this to tell the then Warden of the James Peiris Hall, Peradeniya University, who opposed police action against students during riots in that year: “It is of course the practice of this University as it is the practice of other Universities to endeavour to maintain discipline among its students, including the observance of the general laws, without requiring the assistance of the police. The police in Ceylon, as in England, help the university by drawing attention to any threat against the laws of Ceylon, of which they become aware in the hope that the University will be able to prevent it. This practice does not, however, deprive the police of the right and the duty to take steps as may be lawful for dealing with actual or threatened breaches of laws … The simplest and the best way for the students of the James Peiris Hall to keep the police out of this Hall is for them all to do their duty as citizens and observe the laws of the island … If either because of a request from the University or because of their general duty under the laws of the island it becomes necessary for the police to enter the Hall, it is the duty of every student to assist the police in the execution of their duty. The university itself will give the police every assistance and in no circumstances will it condone or excuse breaches of the laws of Ceylon in the James Peiris Hall or elsewhere.”

Ironically, the political parties whose student wings are violently suppressing dissent in universities and torturing undergraduates in the name of ragging condemn the government for using force against dissenters. What the incumbent regime is doing is wrong and has to be stopped, but the handlers of violent student groups do not have any moral right to ask others to respect democracy while promoting violence in universities to compass their political ends. They were at the forefront of Aragalaya, demanding a system change, and the restoration of the rule of law, but the fate that would befall the country if they succeeded in capturing state power is not difficult to imagine.

The Frontline Socialist Party and the JVP have drawn heavy flak for encouraging their student activists to suppress dissent in universities. Let them be urged to rein in their violent cadres, and respect the rights of dissenting undergrads before undertaking to protect democracy.